Texas School Principal Fired for Following State Law and Trying to Prepare Students

I have encouraged my children to learn Spanish in school, because I think bilingual capability might give them more job options in the future. Whether we like it or not, Spanish is becoming more and more common in the United States. Learning that language might be an advantage to them.

Much more would it be helpful to Spanish-speaking (legal?!) immigrant youths, or those who only speak any other foreign language, to learn to speak English well!

Telling a Spanish-speaker to learn English in order to function in America is no more a dismissal of Spanish culture than it is a dismissal of American culture to encourage my children to learn to speak Spanish.

This shows just how perverse and unhinged our fake “multicultural” environment really is. If a school principle had advised her English-speaking students to learn Spanish, and to speak Spanish as much as possible in the classroom, no one would have suggested she should be fired. But, because she recommended that Spanish-speaking students prepare for language exams by speaking English rather than Spanish in the classroom, she has lost her job.

In fact, every wild story was passed off as sober truth about Amy Lacey, but she was placed under a “gag order” while the School Board pretended to investigate her.

Amy Lacey was placed on administrative leave in 2013 after she asked via an intercom announcement that Hempstead Middle School students should speak English in the classroom. She shortly after learned that the school board declined to renew her contract and would be firing her.

Meanwhile, reports swirled that Ms. Lacey had banned Spanish from the school campus, rocking national headlines.

But Ms. Lacey’s attorney, Mark Robinett, said that’s not true — that “there was no ban,” the Houston Chronicle reported.

“There were no consequences for speaking Spanish in class,” he told the newspaper. “In fact, Ms. Lacey stated her respect for the Hispanic culture and language.”

Ms. Lacey herself is finally allowed to tell her story. A gag order that was imposed on her during the school board’s investigation of the matter has finally expired, and the former Hempstead principal wrote a letter to the Houston newspaper, explaining her side of the story.

“I informed students it would be best to speak English in the classrooms to the extent possible, in order to help prepare them for [state] tests,” she wrote, the Daily Mail reported. “It is important to note that I did not ban the use of Spanish anywhere in the school or at any time. … Teachers had reported to me that they had experienced instances in which students had been asked to stop talking during instruction, and they responded that it was their right to speak Spanish — ignoring the fact that they shouldn’t have been speaking [in any language] during class without permission. The perception of the teachers was that students were being disrespectful and disrupting learning, and they believed they could get away with it by claiming racism.”

Ms. Lacey said the incident was blown way out of proportion — and that she only advocated what Texas states in its code as law.

English is the basic language of this state. Public schools are responsible for providing a full opportunity for all students to become competent in speaking, reading, writing and comprehending the English language. … The mastery of basic English skills is a prerequisite for effective participation in the state’s educational program. Using English to the extent possible would also allow non-Spanish-speaking teachers a better opportunity to assess understanding and learning.

As far as I can tell, this is a pure-type example of the so-called government declaring a verdict against a person for merely doing her job in order to satisfy the angry masses. The rules and laws and educational goals don’t matter. Once you have angered a minority mob, or a hipster mob, your career is over.

No doubt this teaches other teachers a valuable lesson in what is really expected of them in state schools.